Vogue and Hamish Bowles got the inside track to connect with controversial figure and Margiela creative director, John Galliano, for the magazine's March 2015 issue. The piece is a long reflection by Galliano about his new position, making the brand his own and sort of your standard, boilerplate "I've turned over a new leaf" celeb confessional. We get the much softer side of Galliano here.
We also get the inner monologue of Bowles attending Galliano's first Margiela show in London, a cavalcade of intensely-detailed dresses and gowns with industrial metal plating accents that look straight out of a Silent Hill video game. Regardless, Kate Moss still showed up late because KATE MOSS. Of course, Bowles also got to visit the Margiela studio and get a glimpse of Galliano working sober. He admits he's never done "this," which we can assume is design an entire collection while not on a cocktail of cool drugs and booze.
The whole piece feels like a positive PR campaign, which is understandable, but not any easier to digest. There are some nice nuggets in here though: His design process is now fully modernized, using computers to find the perfect shade of red, he has dived deep into the Margiela archives to see the roots of the brand and has also met with the man himself, the practically anonymous Martin Margiela.
The crown jewel though is an anecdote in which Galliano, who used to frequent flea markets and, when he entered rehab after his now infamous anti-semitic rant, received letters every day from a woman who sold vintage jewelry. Now that he's out and back on his grind, he hangs with her autistic, three-year-old son, Ulysses, and takes him on walks with his dog Gypsy. There's a whole lot of other stuff to parse through that is at least relatively interesting. Considering this is the guy helming one of our favorite high-fashion houses, it's good to keep tabs on all the utter ridiculousness.
